Gene Butcher and his brother Ken of Waterford Township will gather up drums, flags, scarves and smoke bombs in May and head down to Detroit.

There, the brothers, along with hundreds of other roaring fans, will root on their Detroit City Football Club soccer team as the players strive to beat another Midwest club.

“We’re more fanatical than fans,” said Gene Butcher, who founded the Northern Guard Supporters, the Detroit City club’s boosters.

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“We sing, play drums, dress head to toe in team colors of rouge and gold — it’s insanity.”

The supporters, who point out their rowdy enthusiasm is common among European soccer fans, generally gather at Harry’s Bar, 2482 Clifford St., Detroit, near the soccer field at Cass Tech High School.

“We walk to the game and even drag people in from the neighborhood to watch with us,” said Butcher, a Waterford Regional Fire Department lieutenant.

The young Detroit minor league soccer team, part of the National Premier Soccer League, began playing last year.

The league — sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, the governing body of soccer in the U.S. — operates and is managed as a team-run league. Each team is individually owned and operated, and is responsible for maintaining league minimum standards.

The Midwest boasts 11 teams in cities such as Cleveland; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Erie, Pa.

“A lot of the Detroit club players are from Oakland University,” Butcher said.

The season runs from mid-May through July. Last year, the team played six home games and two exhibitions. The Northern Guard attended away games, too,Butcher said, admitting he has been obsessed with soccer since he was 5.

Because of his interest, he spotted a small article last year about the start of the Detroit club. He knows organizing the Northern Guard has been a help to the team.

“Pictures of us (at the games) go across the country. That brings the team a lot of attention and more people in the stands to watch,” he said.

Counting the opposition, about 2,000 people attend an average game.

“In the league of 40 teams, we had the second-highest attendance,” Butcher said.

The low ticket price of $5 also is a plus, fans point out.

The Northern Guard will gather together in the off-season at a fundraiser for the Guard’s charity, Hooligans for Heroes, on March 14.

Butcher said the group had been looking for a charity to support when his friend Chris Monroe, a Northern Guard supporter serving in Afghanistan, suggested helping wounded military.

After two of Monroe’s fellow servicemen were severely injured in an attack, the Northern Guard members decided to begin raising money to help them. All donations raised during Hooligans events go to help the servicemen, Butcher said.

He urged people to give the games a try this year.

“It’s the best sports ticket in town,” Butcher said. “We create a pretty crazy, loud environment and teams play super-hard.

He urges sports fans to “come on down and have a blast, and watch some really good soccer.”

FYI

For information about the Detroit City Football Club soccer team, visit www.detcityfc.com.

A Shamrocks and Shenanigans fundraiser for the Northern Guard charity, Hooligans for Heroes, will be at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 14, at the Loving Touch bar, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale. The band 1592 will perform. Admission is $5.